Karen Brown, the Theodore Rinehart Professor of Business Law at the George Washington University Law School, will receive the lifetime achievement award at the Association of American Law Schools’ Annual Meeting on January 9 in New Orleans.
Professor Brown is receiving the award in recognition of her distinguished career of teaching, service, and scholarship. Professor Brown was selected for her "impact in the field of taxation, the legal community, and the academy through mentoring, writing, speaking, activism, and by providing opportunities to others."
“I am bowled over by this honor and very grateful to the AALS Tax Section for selecting me for this award,” Professor Brown said. “It is a very kind assessment of a long career which would not have progressed without the support of my friends and colleagues at GW. The honor is in truth a tribute to the perseverance, resilience, love, and support of my parents, their parents, and our entire community. That makes it especially meaningful to me.”
Professor Brown’s teaching and scholarship interests are in the areas of income, corporate, and international taxation. She has co-written a book on international tax transactions and co-edited a book on tax reform. She has written numerous articles and book chapters and delivered many presentations on federal taxation, with a focus on international tax reform and developing nations, particularly Sub-Saharan Africa. Professor Brown is a member of the American Law Institute and the International Fiscal Association. She is a Fellow of the American Bar Foundation.
Professor Brown has been instrumental in advancing the Tax Law program at GW Law, which was recently given an A-rating by the National Jurist.
“I congratulate Professor Brown on this incredible honor,” GW Law Dean Dayna Bowen Matthew said. “Professor Brown’s mentorship and expertise has propelled the careers of many GW Law graduates. Her commitment to teaching in and advancing the field of Tax Law is why GW Law is among the top law schools for Tax Law in the nation.”
Prior to joining GW Law, Professor Brown was a Professor of Law at the Brooklyn Law School and at the University of Minnesota where she was the Julius E. Davis Professor of Law for 1995–96 and received the Stanley V. Kinyon Award for excellence in teaching in 1997. At the University of Minnesota she also served as Associate Dean for Academic Affairs from 1995 to 1997. Before beginning her teaching career, Professor Brown was a Trial Attorney for the U.S. Department of Justice, Tax Division, and an associate at Steptoe & Johnson in Washington, DC.
In addition to the awards ceremony, Professor Brown will be speaking on a panel on Taxation, titled “The Future of Tax Pedagogy: Coverage, Resources, and Innovation,” at the AALS meeting. Learn more about that panel here.